People & Power

The Indignant

Why Spain’s young people took to the streets in protest at the economic crisis gripping their country.

Demonstrations, marches, rallies. For months now hundreds of thousands of Europeans have been expressing their anger at government imposed austerity measures.

Recently those voices have been especially loud in Greece, where the administration is trying to implement a savage programme of spending cuts to avoid the country defaulting on its loans.

But it is in Spain that the protest movement has gained most traction. In mid-May demonstrations that started in the capital Madrid soon led to mass rallies in other major cities, in some cases occupying public squares for almost a month.

The “indignants” as they call themselves, dismantled their last camp in Madrid on June 12, but their commitment shows no sign of waning and many more marches and rallies are planned for the weeks ahead.

So what is driving them? And what do they hope to achieve? A team from Televisio de Catalunya filmed through the first weeks of the May protests in Madrid and Barcelona, and found people angry at their country’s economic and political elites.

This episode of People & Power can be seen from Wednesday, June 22, at the following times GMT: Wednesday: 2230; Thursday: 0930; Friday: 0330; Saturday: 1630; Sunday: 2230; Monday: 0930.